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Printed From Acorn-Online.com Redding Pilot by FRAN SIKORSKI
Responding to a suggestion by one of her professors at Middlebury College, senior Kelsey Eichhorn entered her junior thesis 500 level documentary film, What I Do Has to Be Great, in last year’s Vermont Film Festival in Burlington in October. She did not expect to win because she thought her film would be used as a “filler.” She was not even planning to attend the event because on the same day the winners were to be announced, it was family weekend at Middlebury College, and she was taking her parents, Charles and Lynn Eichhorn of Redding, on a tour of the campus. The day, however, was full of surprises for Kelsey, a film and media culture studies major, who received an e-mail that her junior thesis project had won Best Documentary for A Student, and Overall Best Student Film in this year’s Vermont Film Festival. Her award-winning documentary film is about a Vermont lawyer, John Putnam, a ’79 alumnus of Middlebury College who changed careers to become a cheesemaker.
The student filmmaker said during an interview, “I was absolutely floored, and happy that my prize included professional equipment and editing software to work on my senior year documentary film thesis. “Film was something I was always interested in, but when I started college, I was more into history and writing,” she said. However, when Kelsey took a film history class her first semester, she “loved it,” did a lot of research, and decided to focus on documentary filmmaking and to create her first short film.
Junior year abroad “I spent my junior year at the University of Oslo in Norway, and began a documentary film project working with a dog sled racer. I was using a camcorder, and it was not enough to make the quality film I wanted. I didn’t feel comfortable with it. I still have the footage and may supplement it some day,” she said.An internship last summer with award-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple at Cabin Creek Film in New York City offered Kelsey the opportunity to be an assistant editor for a documentary, The Music in You. It was about Texas students doing High School Musical as their high school musical, and it was to be shown on the Disney Channel. This experience also encouraged Kelsey to continue her career in documentary filmmaking. She has since been invited to return to Cabin Creek Film after graduation. Returning to Middlebury College for her senior year, Kelsey said she read a newspaper article about John Putnam. “I called him and said I was fascinated by his story and asked if I could do a documentary on him,” she said. “He and his wife Janine had purchased a dairy farm in North Pomfrey, Vt., in 1985, and he started to fix it up. He went to France and studied with a cheesemaker, had a custom copper vat made, returned to the farm, and starting processing Tarantaise cheese six years ago. The Putnams are the only Tarantaise cheesemakers in the United States, and instead of a 9 to 5 business day, John Putnam is enjoying being a farmer and cheesemaker 24 hours a day. “The whole idea of giving up something and doing what you have to do to be happy is really interesting to me,” said Kelsey who started filming last March and finished her project early that April. “The weather didn’t cooperate because it snowed on April 12. I did all the filming myself, and some people gave me feedback on editing. I could get people to help, but I had to be in charge to make the film as natural and comfortable as I wanted it.” The documentary was shown on campus in May with John and Jane Putnam attending the screening. “They also brought samples of Tarantaise cheese that were gone in 10 minutes,” said Kelsey.
Senior thesis Kelsey is coordinating her senior thesis documentary film with six artists at the Frog Hollow Craft Center in Vermont with a focus on art education for the public. Among the artists is a wood turner who only works with live trees that have fallen down. Commenting on her newest project, Kelsey said, “I’m interested in environmental issues and they are important to me. There is nothing angry in my documentaries, and I see my work as art. I’m also seeking funding to go to Antartica with a geologist friend to film in that environment,” she said.“I’m very happy with the way my documentary film What I Do Has to Be Great turned out. I plan to enter it in other film festivals, and eventually, would love to go to the Sundance and Telluride film festivals,” said Kelsey. “There’s always some kind of message I’m trying to get through, and if people leave the theater thinking, then I’ve done my job,” said Kelsey. © Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers |
